Musharraf’s Departure is not Enough
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Next in Line? |
Despite his willingness to blog on our site , I also think it is time for Musharraf to go. It is not enough that he `take off his uniform’. It is time for Musharraf to retire from the Army and give up the Presidency. If he is merely overthrown by his own hand-picked successor, the situation will only get even worse.
The first step is to restore the Judges that Mushie imprisoned. And put in place a national unity government of (possibly corrupt) politicians who alone can manage the transition to some semblance of normalcy. They will probably squabble and steal, but there is really no other solution. For once, the right thing to do is also the expedient thing.
It is a myth that only dictatorships can put down terrorists and insurgents. India eventually did put down the Khalistan separatists and the ULFA in Assam. It was not easy or entirely legal, but what was needed was done. Another such operation is going on right now,against the Maoists. It is the moderate left wing Governments that are most effective at putting down the extreme left wingers. A state government led by Akali Dal, the moderate Punjabi political party, directed a brutal police operation led by K. P. S. Gill (a Sikh) that destroyed Khalistan separatists. Dealing with insurgency is as much a political process as a police operation. It is simply beyond the competence of mere Generals or the other extreme, mere do-gooders. Only a hard-nosed political leadership can direct the Generals in a successful anti-insurgency.
There is no way that even a civilian leadership can resolve the enormous problems Pakistan is facing if the US continues to prop up the Pakistani Army behind their back. The Army needs to be seen as implementing the decisions of a representative government. Otherwise they will always be suspect, thought of as agents of their foreign patrons. That is why the rank and file of the Pakistani army has shown no enthusiasm for fighting the Al Queda. At the first sign of trouble 300 of them surrendered. The Generals must learn to salute an elected Prime Minister, no matter how much in contempt they hold him or her. Like any other army in the civilized third world.
Every indication is that things will not go this way . If Musharraf is replaced at all, it will be by another General in the same mold. The Mainstream Media in the US is already building up the image of Musharraf’s anointed successor, one General Ashfaq Kiyani. Having failed to arrange a marriage between Mrs. Bhutto and Musharraf so far, Washington is now trying to fix her up with Kiyani, a former aide. Supposedly Kiyani is ` an introverted man’ , ` a soldier’s soldier’, ` a consummate professional’. One flak says:
General Kiyani not only excels in professional military matters and affairs of internal and external security, but also belongs to a rare breed of military officers who have a sound intellectual base.
Sounds a lot like what they were saying about the hapless Musharraf only a month ago. We will soon hear that the good Ashfaq is fond of puppies, likes to help grandmothers cross the street and that he volunteers in a soup kitchen in his spare time. He can even walk and chew paan at the same time. The truth is that Kiyani too is a product of the same system that produced the failed Musharraf. Personal style aside, Kiyani will also double cross the civilians and lead his country into total disaster. Things can get even worse than they are now.
Until a decade ago, the rest of the world could have thought of protecting rule of law in Pakistan as Pakistan’s problem. In this view, Musharraf might be a son of a bitch, but he is `our son of a bitch’. (Saying just this got a couple of reporters kicked out of Pakistan.) This complacency is what allowed the Pakistani army to breed the worst terrorist organization in the world: the Al Queda was their creation which then grew too big for them to control. The Pakistani army is saying in essence `support us or the atom bomb will end up in the hand of the terrorists’. To put it directly, they are a criminal enterprise masquerading as a national defense force. A protection racket. And we shouldn’t given in to such blackmail.
We are constantly assured that the Pakistan army is a `professional outfit’. What profession would that be?Ayesha Siddiqua’s book documents in great detail how the army owns every sector of the Pakistan economy. They have usurped everything from utility companies to cereal factories. While they accuse the politicians of corruption, each General is worth 10 million dollars of ill-gotten gain. Not since Marcos of Philippines has there been as corrupt an organization.
So why don’t we hear more about this? For several decades, it has been illegal in Pakistan to criticize the army. The politicians enjoy no such protection. Until recently, you could even call Musharraf personally anything you want without bad consequences. But the Army itself is above discussion. It is inviolate, its Generals ruling as if by divine authority. That is why we hear so much flattery of the army even as the political system is getting trashed.
While they claim to be the only functional organization in the country, the army runs its Military Business with the same total incompetence with which they have fought the insurgency. The whole enterprise will collapse if it were not for American money, euphemistically called aid, to the tune of 10 billion dollars.
The Unites States finds itself in the situation of the man whose pet snake bit his wife1 in the posterior. The solution is not to get rid of one snake and get another supposedly tamer one. That snake too will follow its instinct. The Generals of Pakistan just don’t have the intelligence to know who is a dangerous terrorist and who is merely a judge enforcing a law inconvenient to them. Their solution to all opposition is to lash out. They react based on an animal instinct of self-preservation and not on crafty political calculations. When they do try to engage in political manipulation the Generals make fools of themselves.
Even by the standards of dictators, the Pakistani Generals are isolated and ignorant of the world outside of the palaces they live in.Husain Siddiqui notes that Musharraf asked his Indian hosts `So how did Gandhi die?’ while he was visiting the Gandhi memorial in Delhi. Musharraf’s bizarre statements in the last few days, that he is the one bringing democracy to Pakistan, and comparing himself to Lincoln, reveal a mind about to come unhinged. Gen. Kiyani will be no better.
To save the world from terrorism, Pakistan needs to be saved from its predatory Army. The Generals of Pakistan must be put in their place, and forced to submit to civilian authority. Bhutto and Sharif may be corrupt and Imran Khan a mere cricket player. But to paraphrase another friend of Musharraf, you work with the politicians you have, not the ones you wish you had. There are no Gandhis or Martin Luther Kings over there.
The idea that these incompetent Generals will defeat the Al Queda is laughable. It was a bad idea when Bush came up with it back in 2001 in the wake of 9/11. Now that its flaws are obvious to all, the pretension is that changing leadership will make everything all right. Even greater disaster awaits us down that road.
Endnotes
1. This is not merely an urban legend. There is a bizarre fascination with exotic pets like Burmese pythons among some Americans, as inexplicable as the fascination of our leaders with treacherous dictators. Every so often someone gets bitten. The following news story can be read as a parable about US foreign policy:
From: The Washington Post Date: August 22, 1996
Paramedics sawed off the head of a family’s pet python today after the nine-foot snake coiled itself around a pregnant woman’s stomach and entangled her husband as well.
Mary Anne Carter, who is eight months pregnant, woke up about 10 a.m. to find Calena, a nine-foot Burmese python, wrapped around her stomach and biting her buttocks, said police spokesman Bill Robinson.
Carter’s husband, Brad, tried to free her using a small knife, but he too became ensnared. “It totally locked up the right side of my body,” he said.
Sometimes these events ends in death as with a Cincinnatti fireman who was bitten by his own pet viper. The wonders of free enterprise: a baby viper can be bought online for just $75 plus shipping.
